The Times carries a column that reads like a paid advertisement — free of any skepticism — about a book called "Just Say Yes: A Marijuana Memoir."

The column and the book try to make the point that the author of the book, Catherine Hiller, smoked marijuana "more or less every day for the past 50 years," and "her life turned out nicely."

Plenty of other books from less obscure publishers get much less attention from the Times than this book does, so you have to wonder why it is that the Times fell so hard for this one. The Times column came on top of an article that the author wrote for the the Times about her drug-buying experiences. Maybe this is the sweet spot for the Times demographic — hippies in their 60s and 70s — but for anyone younger or less invested in the pro-marijuana advocacy campaign, it risks coming off as kind of weird.

The Times carries a column that reads like a paid advertisement — free of any skepticism — about a book called "Just Say Yes: A Marijuana Memoir."

The column and the book try to make the point that the author of the book, Catherine Hiller, smoked marijuana "more or less every day for the past 50 years," and "her life turned out nicely."

Plenty of other books from less obscure publishers get much less attention from the Times than this book does, so you have to wonder why it is that the Times fell so hard for this one. The Times column came on top of an article that the author wrote for the the Times about her drug-buying experiences. Maybe this is the sweet spot for the Times demographic — hippies in their 60s and 70s — but for anyone younger or less invested in the pro-marijuana advocacy campaign, it risks coming off as kind of weird.